Juose molesh Charity meas have gained their personal freedom. By industry and good conduct they may rise to independence and wealth. 7. All officers, soldiers, and citizens are requested to give publicity to the rules, and to instruct the freed people as to their new rights and obligations. 8. All officers of the army, and of the county police companies, are authorized and required to correct any violation of the above rules within their jurisdiction. 9. Each district commander will appoint a superintendent of freedmen (a commissioned officer), with such number of assistants (officers and non-commissioned officers) as may be necessary, whose duty it will be to take charge of all the freed people in his district who are without homes or proper employment. The superintendents will send back to their homes all who have left them in violation of the above rules, and will endeavor to find homes and suitable employment for all others. They will provide suitable camps or quarters for such as cannot be otherwise provided for, and attend to their discipline, police, subsistence, etc. IO. The superintendents will hear all complaints of guardians or wards, and report the facts to their district commanders, who are authorized to dissolve the existing relations of guardian and ward in any case which may seem to require it, and to direct the superintendent to otherwise provide for the wards, in accordance with the above rules. Rules and Regulations for Assistant Commissioners House Ex. Doc. no. 11, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 45. Howard's regulations. Approved June 2, 1865, by President Johnson. [May 30, 1865] I. The headquarters of the Assistant Commissioners will, for the present, be established as follows, viz: for Virginia, at Richmond, Va.; for North Carolina, at Raleigh, N. C.; for South Carolina and Georgia, at Beaufort, S. C.; for Alabama, at Montgomery, Ala.; for Kentucky and Tennessee, at Nashville, Tenn.; for Missouri and Arkansas, at St. Louis, Mo.; for Mississippi, at Vicksburg, Miss.; for Louisiana, at New Orleans, La.; for Florida, at Jacksonville, Fla. . . Official Regulations and Reports 329 III. Relief establishments will be discontinued as speedily as the cessation of hostilities and the return of industrial pursuits will permit. Great discrimination will be observed in administering relief, so as to include none that are not absolutely necessitous and destitute. IV. Every effort will be made to render the people selfsupporting. Government supplies will only be temporarily issued to enable destitute persons speedily to support themselves, and exact accounts must be kept with each individual or community, and held as a lien upon their crops. The commissioners are especially to remember that their duties are to enforce, with reference to these classes, the laws of the United States. V. Loyal refugees, who have been driven from their homes will, on their return, be protected from abuse, and the calamities of their situation relieved as far as possible. If destitute, they will be aided with transportation, and food when deemed expedient, while in transitu, returning to their former homes. . . VII. In all places where there is an interruption of civil law, or in which local courts, by reason of old codes, in violation of the freedom guaranteed by the proclamation of the President and laws of Congress, disregard the negro's right to justice before the laws in not allowing him to give testimony, the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen being committed to this bureau, the Assistant Commissioners will adjudicate, either themselves or through officers of their appointment, all difficulties arising between negroes themselves, or between negroes and whites or Indians, except those in military service, so far as recognizable by military authority, and not taken cognizance of by the other tribunals, civil or military, of the United States. VIII. Negroes must be free to choose their own employers, and be paid for their labor. Agreements should be free, bona fide acts, approved by proper officers, and their inviolability enforced on both parties. The old system of overseers, tending to compulsory unpaid labor and acts of cruelty and oppression is prohibited. The unity of families, and all the rights of the family relation, will be carefully guarded. In places where the local statutes make no provisions for the marriage of persons of color, the Assistant Commissioners are authorized to designate officers who shall keep a record of marriages, which may be solemnized by any ordained minister of the gospel, who shall make a return of the same, with such items as may be required for registration at places designated by the Assistant Commissioner. Registrations already made by the United States officers will be carefully preserved. IX. Assistant Commissioners will instruct their receiving and disbursing officers to make requisitions upon all officers, civil or military, in charge of funds, abandoned lands, &c., within their respective territories, to turn over the same in accordance with the orders of the President. They will direct their medical officers to ascertain the facts and necessities connected with the medical treatment and sanitary condition of refugees and freedmen. They will instruct their teachers to collect the facts in reference to the progress of the work of education, and aid it with as few changes as possible to the close of the present season. During the school vacations of the hot months, special attention will be given to the provision for the next year. X. Assistant Commissioners will aid refugees and freedmen in securing titles to land according to law. This may be done. for them as individuals or by encouraging joint companies. Instructions to Assistant Commissioners House Ex. Doc. no. 11, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 49. tions sent out by General Howard. Circular instruc[July 12, 1865] EACH Assistant Commissioner will be careful, in the establishment of sub-districts, to have the office of his agent at some point easy of access for the people of the sub-district. He will have at least one agent, either a citizen, military officer, or enlisted man, in each sub-district. This agent must be thoroughly instructed in his duties. He will be furnished with the proper blanks for contracts, and will institute methods adequate to meet the wants of his district in accordance with the rules of this bureau. No fixed rates of wages will be prescribed for a district, but in order to regulate fair wages in given in dividual cases the agent should have in mind minimum rates for his own guidance. By careful inquiry as to the hire of an ablebodied man when the pay went to the master, he will have an approximate test of the value of labor. He must of course consider the entire change of circumstances, and be sure that the laborer has due protection against avarice and extortion. Wages had better be secured by a lien on the crops or land. Employers are desired to enter into written agreements with employes, setting forth stated wages, or securing an interest in the land or crop, or both. All such agreements will be approved by the nearest agent, and a duplicate filed in his office. . . In order to enforce the fulfilment of contracts on both contracting parties, the Commissioner of the bureau lays down no general rule the Assistant Commissioner must use the privileges and authority he already has. Provost courts, military commissions, local courts, where the freedmen and refugees have equal rights with other people, are open to his use. In the great majority of cases his own arbitrament, or that of his agent, or the settlement by referees, will be sufficient. No Assistant Commissioner, or agent, is authorized to tolerate compulsory unpaid labor, except for the legal punishment of crime. Suffering may result to some extent, but suffering is preferred to slavery, and is to some degree the necessary consequence of events. In all actions the officer should never forget that no substitute for slavery, like apprenticeship without proper consent, or peonage, (i. e., either holding the people by debt, or confining them, without consent, to the land by any system,) will be tolerated. The Assistant Commissioner will designate one or more of his agents to act as the general superintendent of schools (one for each State) for refugees and freedmen. This officer will work as much as possible in conjunction with State officers who may have school matters in charge. If a general system can be adopted for a State, it is well; but if not, he will at least take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent Pampers cach Stute will agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports. All public addresses of a character calculated to create discontent are reprehensible; but the Assistant Commissioner and his agents must explain, by constant recapitulation, the principles, laws, and regulations of this bureau to all parties concerned. It is recommended to the Assistant Commissioners to draw up in writing a careful summary to be publicly and privately read by agents throughout their respective districts. The Bureau and the Laws of theStates Howard's circular [October 4, 1865] STATE laws with regard to apprenticeship will be recognized by this bureau, provided they make no distinction of color; or in case they do so, the said laws applying to white children will be extended to the colored. Officers of this bureau are regarded as. guardians of orphans and minors of freedmen within their respective districts. The principle to be adhered to with regard to paupers is, that each county, parish, township, or City shall care for and provide for its own poor. Vagrant laws made for free people and now in force on the statute-books of the States embraced in the operations of this bureau, will be recognized and extended to the freedmen. Regulation of Labor Contracts Issued by General [December 4, 1865] House Ex. Doc. no. 70, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 30. A. Baird, New Orleans, Louisiana. I. . . ALL contracts for labor should be made in triplicate, and should be approved by the agent of this bureau for the parish in which the parties reside; one copy to be retained by the employer, and the other two copies sent to this office one to be forwarded to Washington. Contracts made otherwise than as thus prescribed will not be regarded as binding by the Bureau, nor as meriting its inter |